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Sunday, May 19, 2013

Tweeting the #WEFAfrica Opening Plenary on BRICS

The World Economic Forum event on Africa for 2013 took place at the Cape Town International Conference Centre. The theme was “Delivering on Africa’s Promise”. I attended it and joined the opening plenary which kick-started event though there had been panels and sessions earlier that day (May 9th) and the day before. I was a panelist in one session earlier that morning about Forward Leadership.

The opening plenary session was dubbed "Building with BRICS: How will collaboration with the BRICS empower Africa to deliver on its promise?". It featured WEF chair Klaus Schwab as moderator, South Africa's President Jacob Zuma, IMF first deputy managing director David Lipton, African Union chair Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Jindal Steel and Power chair Naveen Jindal, and AfDB president Donald Kaberuka as panelists. Below are some tweets I captured ---

Elsie Kanza led us in a call & response. 'Kitendawilli' is a Swahili phrase you say before you tell a story. Response is 'Tega'. #wefafrica
— Ato Ulzen-Appiah (@Abocco) May 9, 2013

Facts: Africa is 15% of world population, yet only attracts 3% of FDI.The world is missing out still today on Africa on the Rise #WEFAFRICA
— Mads Kjær (@MadsMYC4) May 9, 2013

tweeting dey be keke!
The major takeaway from this session in my opinion was the need for African integration. Many of the other messages, we've heard already. South Africa, as a member of BRICS, is obviously a leader on the African continent. It needs to do more to support infrastructure on the continent and becoming a market for other African countries. You can watch the whole plenary here -
#leggo

PS: So Siyabonga saw his president in person for the first time at the World Economic Forum. Who's Siyabonga? Stay tuned.